What Orca3D does

Orca3D, LLC is a privately held marine design software company headquartered in Annapolis, Maryland, that develops plugins for Rhino 3D CAD software serving naval architects, yacht designers, and boat builders worldwide. Its core product, Orca3D Marine Design for Rhinoceros, adds marine-specific capabilities to the Rhino NURBS environment including hull design and fairing via proprietary Hull Assistants, real-time hydrostatic calculations using 3D volume integration (rather than station-based methods), stability analysis with class-approved criteria (IMO, USCG, Lloyd's Register, AMSA NSCV), parametric speed/power prediction, weight and cost tracking, and CFD simulation through a partnership with HydroComp's Simerics-MP solver. The current Version 3 release, launched in February 2024, restructured the offering into four purchasable modules: Design, Analysis, Advanced Stability, and Marine CFD.

The company operates a hybrid go-to-market combining product-led growth (15-day fully functional evaluation license), direct e-commerce sales via its website, and regional channel partners including NDAR for European coverage. Revenue is generated through perpetual and annual subscription licenses priced from $500 to $10,500 per module for commercial customers, with educational licenses at $99-$975, plus separate CFD subscriptions on 3-, 6-, or 12-month terms. The customer base spans yacht manufacturers (J/Boats, Viking Yachts, Sabre, Back Cove, SeaVee, Bayliss, Nordhavn), independent naval architecture firms (Simonis Voogd, Naval Dynamics, Radford, Bedard, Tony Castro, Van Gorkom), powercat producers (Robertson & Caine), defense/government (Zodiac Hurricane H1100 Border Guard RHIB), and commercial marine (Majestic Cruise Lines 134m vessel with Lloyd's Register approval). Orca3D is founder/management-owned, has 11-50 employees, has not raised venture capital, and operates as a bootstrapped specialist vertical SaaS provider in a niche global market.

Name

Orca3D

Legal name

Orca3D, LLC

Website

https://orca3d.com

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Orca3D develops modular marine design and analysis software plugins for Rhino 3D CAD, providing hull design, hydrostatics, stability analysis, and CFD for naval architects, yacht designers, and boat builders worldwide.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Marine Design Software

NAICS

Other Specialized Design Services (54149), Ship and Boat Building (33661)

SIC

Ship & Boat Building & Repairing (3730)

akta.pro primary industry

Hydrodynamics & Performance Engineering (Resistance, Propulsion, Seakeeping, Maneuvering) (IMAJAGAB)

akta.pro secondary industries

Production Design & Detailed Engineering (3D CAD, Drawings, BOM, Nesting) (IMAJAGAK), Stability, Weight & Load Analysis (Intact/Damage Stability, Weight Control) (IMAJAGAI)

Keywords

• Marine design software
• Naval architecture tools
• Hull design software
• Ship stability analysis
• CFD simulation software

Headquarters

HQ city

Annapolis

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations

Revenue model

1. Software Licenses - Perpetual: Perpetual licenses provide permanent usage rights with one-time payment. Customers receive technical support and minor updates. Future major upgrades require additional purchase.
2. Software Licenses - Annual: Annual subscription licenses provide usage rights for one year. Customers receive technical support, all minor updates, and all major upgrades released during the license period.
3. Educational Licenses: Discounted annual licenses for students and educational institutions. Individual student licenses and school lab network licenses available at reduced rates.
4. Orca3D Marine CFD Software: CFD software licensed separately with 3-month, 6-month, or 12-month licenses, as well as intermittent licenses activated on a project-by-project basis. Includes up to 16 cores in base price.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

Orca3D develops a marine design and analysis software plugin for Rhino 3D CAD, providing naval architects, yacht designers, and boat builders with integrated hull design, NURBS-based surface modeling, hydrostatics, stability analysis, parametric speed/power prediction, weight and cost tracking, and CFD simulation within a single CAD environment. The product is sold in modular components (Design, Analysis, Advanced Stability, Marine CFD) under perpetual or annual licensing.

Product overview

Orca3D is a modular marine design and analysis software plugin for Rhino 3D, written and supported by naval architects. The Version 3 architecture offers four purchasable modules: DESIGN (Hull Design & Fairing + Basic Hydrostatics & Stability), ANALYSIS (Parametric Speed/Power + CFD Pre/Post-Processing + Weight/Cost), ADVANCED STABILITY (Compartmentation, Tank Modeling, Fluid/Solid Loads, Damaged Stability), and ORCA3D MARINE CFD (SimericsMP-powered CFD solver, requires ANALYSIS module). Products are available as standalone or network licenses with annual or perpetual options. Legacy versions (V1, V2) are sunset. A 15-day evaluation trial is available.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Orca3D Marine CFD: Computational Fluid Dynamics solution combining Orca3D plugin with Simerics-MP CFD software for naval architects
• Orca3D Version 3 Modules

Products and services

• Orca3D Marine Design for Rhinoceros Comprehensive marine design plugin for Rhino 3D that combines naval architecture tools with CAD capabilities for professional naval architects, yacht designers, and boat builders.
• Orca3D Design Module Module including Hull Design & Fairing with NURBS surface creation, Hull Assistants for parametric hull generation, section definition tools, and Basic Hydrostatics & Stability with real-time hydrostatic updates.
• Orca3D Marine CFD RANS-based computational fluid dynamics solution combining the Orca3D interface with Simerics-MP solver for resistance, self-propulsion, and seakeeping analysis of displacement and planing hulls. Requires Analysis module.
• Advanced Hydrostatics & Stability Module Advanced compartmentation and tank modeling software with fluid and solid loads, unlimited load cases, free surface effects, intact and damaged stability analysis with criteria evaluation (IMO, USCG, Lloyd's Register, AMSA NSCV), and tank capacity tables.
• Parametric Speed/Power Module Speed and power prediction software for vessels using the Savitsky method for planing chine hulls, Holtrop method for displacement hulls, and van Oortmerssen method for tugs and trawlers, with most input parameters auto-computed from the model.
• Weight & Cost Module Weight and center of gravity tracking software with material library for assigning weight, material cost, and labor/fabrication cost per unit area, length, or volume to model objects in the Rhino environment.

Quantifiable outcome

• Over 5% resistance reduction achieved through bulbous bow CFD optimization
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers18 records

Segments6 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration4 records

Feature7 records

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• Simerics-MP (HydroComp)coreTechnology or IntegrationOrca3D Marine CFD combines the Orca3D plugin with Simerics-MP CFD software from HydroComp to provide RANS-based computational fluid dynamics analysis for naval architects. This partnership delivers CFD capabilities accessible to designers without requiring specialist expertise. The integrated product includes custom marine templates and automated volume meshing.
• Rhino 3D (McNeel & Associates)coreTechnology or IntegrationOrca3D is a plugin for Rhino 3D CAD software. The software runs within the Rhino environment and leverages NURBS surface modeling capabilities. Orca3D Version 3 is compatible with Rhino 7 and 8. This is the foundational platform relationship for the product.
• NDAR (European Reseller)coreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorNDAR serves as Orca3D's European reseller, attending trade shows like EuroMaritime 2026. NDAR provides local technical support in customer time zones and can assist with Rhino support. The partnership enables broader European market presence.

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Bentley Systems (Maxsurf): Maxsurf is the leading commercial naval architecture suite for hull form, stability, and resistance analysis, used by professional shipyards and design offices worldwide. It directly overlaps Orca3D in hydrostatics, stability, and speed/power prediction and competes for the same naval architect customer base.
• NAPA: NAPA is a leading naval architecture software platform for ship design, stability, and load analysis, widely used by shipbuilders and offshore designers. It competes head-to-head with Orca3D's Advanced Stability and hydrostatics capabilities, particularly in commercial vessel and class-approval workflows.

Broad incumbents

• AVEVA Marine (formerly Tribon): AVEVA Marine is an integrated shipbuilding and marine design platform covering hull, outfitting, and production. While broader than Orca3D's design/analysis focus, it competes for the same naval architect and shipyard budgets with a full lifecycle suite.
• Cadmatic: Cadmatic delivers ship and offshore design software covering hull, outfitting, and production. It competes with Orca3D in marine CAD-based hull and outfitting design, particularly for commercial shipyards adopting integrated digital shipbuilding platforms.
• ShipConstructor: ShipConstructor is an AutoCAD-based shipbuilding CAD/CAM solution for detailed design and production. While focused downstream of hull form design, it competes for marine CAD budgets that could otherwise fund Orca3D-on-Rhino investments at smaller yards.
• Siemens Star-CCM+: Siemens Star-CCM+ is a leading general-purpose CFD platform used for ship hydrodynamics and resistance prediction. It competes with Orca3D Marine CFD (powered by Simerics-MP) for naval architecture CFD workloads, especially at larger shipyards with existing Siemens toolchains.
• ANSYS Fluent: ANSYS Fluent is a dominant general-purpose CFD solver used across marine, aerospace, and industrial applications. It competes with Orca3D Marine CFD at organizations that prefer a broad multiphysics CFD platform over a marine-specialized interface.
• Dassault Systèmes (CATIA / SolidWorks): Dassault's CATIA and SolidWorks are broad 3D CAD platforms used in marine and industrial design. They compete with the Rhino/Orca3D ecosystem for hull modeling and engineering workflows, particularly inside larger OEMs already standardized on Dassault tools.

Others

• Rhino (McNeel & Associates): McNeel is the developer of Rhino 3D, the platform on which Orca3D runs. While technically a partner rather than competitor, McNeel sets the underlying NURBS CAD ecosystem (pricing, roadmap, plugin economics) that determines Orca3D's commercial viability and user base.

Emerging players

• HydroComp (NavCad / Hullspeed): HydroComp produces NavCad and Hullspeed, established parametric speed/power and resistance prediction tools widely used by naval architects. It directly overlaps Orca3D's parametric prediction module and is also a partner via the integrated CFD and NavCad workflow.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/user/bhaysOrca3D/featured

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Orca3D